Schools across the US enhance security

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MIAMI — In the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Pembroke Pines, students returning to school this year are being greeted not only by their teachers and principal. They are also meeting the armed school resource officer who will be permanently on campus.

Crime in this middle-class community has been on a steady decline, but city officials decided to place a school police officer at every elementary, middle, and high school after a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., last year.

‘‘It is a relief to have them here,’’ Linda Pazos, principal at Lakeside Elementary School said on Monday, the first day of school.

In the aftermath of the massacre at Sandy Hook, many districts across the nation are increasing the number of school resource officers on campus and, in a few cases, permitting teachers to carry concealed weapons themselves.

An armed security presence is now standard in many of the nation’s middle and high schools, but it has been rarity at elementary schools. Few districts can afford to place a school resource officer at every elementary school, because there are so many and they tend to have fewer incidents requiring a police response than middle and high schools.

Lawmakers in every state in the nation introduced school safety legislation this year, and in at least 20 states those proposals became law, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The new laws range from one authorizing a volunteer, emergency security force at schools in Franklin County, Ala., to one allowing Missouri state employees to keep firearms in a vehicle on state property, if the car is locked and the weapon is approved by authorities and not visible.

While some question the need for an armed presence on campus, arming teachers when a school resource officer cannot be hired is even more controversial.

Bernard James, a professor of constitutional law at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., said one clear trend among legislation introduced since Newtown has been assessing the security of elementary school campuses.

Past efforts to prevent school violence had not focused on elementary schools, James said, ‘‘and that lack of dedicating resources is what was under examination.’’

There are more than 67,000 elementary schools nationwide, more than twice the number of middle and high schools combined.

Sandy Hook Elementary had all the standard safeguards and more, including a locked, video-monitored front door. It did not have a school resource officer. Instead, there were officers at middle and high schools.

There are many advantages to having an officer stationed at school: Students who see or hear something suspicious immediately know who to tell; the mere presence of an officer can deter would-be attackers; and if a gunman does attack, a school resource officer is already there to respond, saving critical minutes between a 911 call and dispatchers mobilizing police.

‘‘That first, immediate shot, chances are nobody is going to be able to stop,’’ Kevin Quinn, president of the National Association of School Resource Officers, said. ‘‘The difference is going to be responding to it.’’

Quinn said his group has trained twice as many new officers as last year, more than 90 since January.

While some question the need for an armed presence on campus, arming teachers and others when a school resource officer cannot be hired is even more controversial. At least three states have passed laws allowing teachers to be carry handguns on campus.

State Representative Brett Hildabrand supported one such law in Kansas. It would allow teachers and staff with concealed carry permits to bring guns to school.

He said the law has been misperceived as requiring teachers to carry, rather than letting districts determine their own policy.

‘‘If a district doesn’t want to adopt, then they don’t have to,’’ he said.

Few if any districts in the state have adopted the law as local policy. A major reason is that the main school insurer in Kansas, EMC Insurance Cos., has said it will not renew coverage for schools that allow teachers to carry concealed weapons.

‘‘We’ve been writing school business for almost 40 years, and one of the underwriting guidelines we follow for schools is that any onsite armed security should be provided by uniformed, qualified law enforcement officers,’’ said Mick Lovell, vice president of business development for the company.